


The Freedom League of Super Pets

by JoeMcJoe



Series: Freedom City [3]
Category: Mutants & Masterminds (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-10
Updated: 2016-05-10
Packaged: 2018-06-07 16:10:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6812695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoeMcJoe/pseuds/JoeMcJoe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Where are the super-powered animals coming from, and what's to be done with them in the meantime?</p><p>Since you probably don't play, the characters are essentially pastiches of comics characters:</p><p>Daedalus, an immortal Iron Man<br/>Captain Thunder, a Superman expo<br/>The Star Knight, an armoured Green Lantern sort<br/>Johnny Rocket is basically the Flash<br/>Raven is Batman (or technically the Huntress: daughter of the first Batman)<br/>Bowman is the third archer in his line, but basically Green Arrow<br/>Pseudo is a non-super-strong Martian Manhunter</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Freedom League of Super Pets

The jungle of the Congo is never silent, and even now there were noises of birds and other animals, as three members of the Freedom League stood, examining the open alien probe. Daedalus, Captain Thunder, and the Star Knight looked at it from a distance.

The probe was a disk, studded with what looked like Tesla coils, and a hatch up to expose the traveling compartment. That held what looked like a dog. A brown and white cocker spaniel, in fact. In the ten minutes that they had been watching, the dog had managed to wriggle out of the probe and stood there on the lip of the probe, looking at them.

"Go ahead, say hello," said Daedalus.

Captain Thunder asked him, "Pardon?"

"No guarantee that it's not an alien that happens to look like a dog," replied Daedalus.

"It's a puppy! said Captain Thunder.

"The Vargrowf of Relton IV look remarkably like dogs," said Star Knight. "I can have my armor list all the dog-like aliens, if you want."

"Then you say hi."

"You're our leader," she said. It sounded as though she were laughing inside the armor.

Captain Thunder sighed, then walked to the alien probe. "Hello. We are the Freedom League. If your intentions are peaceful, we welcome you to our planet."

"Woof!" said the alien. Thunder picked it up. It tried to lick his chin.

"You see?" said Captain Thunder. "It's just a dog. Probably a test probe."

A bird flew by, and the dog flew off after it.

Daedalus looked at him. "You see?" 

* * *

"Well, the dog is male, approximately six months old," said Daedalus. "He's been well cared for, and neutered. He is housebroken, but his other training is...shaky." The dog in question sat on Daedalus' medical scanner bed and whined quietly.

"The powers," said Captain Thunder. "Get to the powers."

"Yes. He flies faster than you do but not as fast as Star Knight, fortunately. He is tougher than an explosion of approximately 10 kilotons of TNT."

Johnny Rocket entered with Captain Thunder's son, Ray Gardner, Junior--also known as Bolt. "Hey-ho." The dog stretched across the room and snatched Johnny's sandwich out of his hand.

"And he stretches," said Daedalus.

"Cool," said Bolt.

"That was my sandwich!"

"You're prehensile," said Daedalus. "You can make another."

"It's the principle of the thing, not the prehensility," said Johnny.

"The probe," said Captain Thunder. "What about the probe?"

"Crude," said Daedalus. "Not production material. Johnny, you can take the dog, all right?" He slid his hands under the dog's belly and tried to hand it over. The feet remained behind and the dog's head stayed by Johnny and the former sandwich. Captain Thunder grabbed the dog's haunches and helped move them over to Johnny.

"He should be a dachshund," said Bolt. "The Slinky dog was a dachshund, right?"

"He's a rare breed--the cocker expandiel," said Daedalus drily.

"Very good," said Johnny. "That was like a joke. Except for the funny part. I'll look after him, but you owe me a sandwich."

"The probe," said Thunder, patiently.

"Yes. The components have a Latinate style of writing that isn't English. There were sensors on the dog, so I infer a test probe."

"That was what I suggested back in the Congo," said Captain Thunder.

"And we agree."

"But whose test probe? Space or another dimension?"

"Well, the shielding is clearly inadequate for either. Look here--" He turned to the probe itself.

But the probe was gone.

"I'd say dimensional," said Johnny. "And it's gone home."

"The first time we had a dimensional visitor, it let Omega know we were here. Do you think it's a plot by Omega?" asked Captain Thunder.

Daedalus said, "Omega has dimensional travel. He doesn't need a test probe."

"So that's still up in the air."

"Speaking of which--" Ray, Jr. held on to the dog by the tail; the dog was flying and wriggling, so Ray, Jr. looked like a boy with a mercurial balloon. "Can we keep the dog, dad?"

"I have to talk to your mother. She lives with us too, you know." _And a dog that can withstand a ten kiloton blast is going to be hell to train._

* * *

Johnny Rocket was running from Freedom City to New York--there was a barista there who thought he was cute, so when Johnny wanted coffee, that was where he went. He was careful to keep his speed under Mach 1 when something small zoomed by him, leaving a small sonic boom in its trail.

 _What the?_ thought Johnny, and picked up speed. _Big bullets?_

But the thing--whatever it was--changed direction. And went faster and higher. Johnny barely noticed they were heading out to sea. He stayed even with it while it was out of reach, waiting for it to come down to him. He dodged a ship, skipped over a land mass of some kind--peninsula?--and then inland again. Up ahead there was a hill and Johnny grabbed it--

 _What the hell?_ Johnny thought again.

It was a budgie. It pecked him and drew blood, which so startled him that he let go.

He had to chase it again and catch it before he took it to the Freedom League's Watchtower.

* * *

"Super speed and a little enhanced strength--the bird is perhaps as strong as a child," said Daedalus.

"I know," said Johnny Rocket, sucking at his finger.

"First a dog, then a budgie. You'd think they sent a cat, too," said Captain Thunder.

Daedalus absent-mindedly guided Johnny's hand under the experimental healing ray and fixed it. "All household pets. A budgie is not a typical experimental animal."

"Thanks," said Johnny. "We don't know that the budgie wasn't first."

"Like a canary in a coal mine? Checking the atmosphere?" said Thunder.

"Sure. And the probe snaps back after each test. He's just really sucky at designing restraints for the animals," said Johnny.

"He might not be expecting the super powers," said Daedalus. "When the Centurion was sent as a baby, he had no powers."

"But this scientist is smart. He's experimenting. He has no way to aim, so he's sending household pets. And he has to keep sending new ones because the old ones escape," said Captain Thunder.

"Household pets--cats are usually smaller. Why not send a cat before a dog?"

Johnny knew this pattern. The two of them would talk until they had the entire thing figured out, and then they'd monologue it. He decided to come back for the big speech at the end. Maybe there was something good in the kitchen--

* * *

Raven gunned the modified Ninja to catch the thieves' car. This gang had stolen bearer bonds from a securities firm in a strip mall--they obviously thought that they could avoid her by sticking to the sections of town where she couldn't swing.

The thieves were three cars ahead, and only doing a hundred in a residential area. She dodged one car, took the sidewalk for the other two, and came up behind the car. Good thing it was a residential neighborhood: wide sidewalks.

Daedalus had added a fair bit to the fast bike after the last one she had totaled, including a force-field protection system based on the antigrav in the skybikes. And it still used regular gas. With the fields up, she was protected if she had to slide the bike.

 _Feed me._ It was less words and more a feeling.

She didn't know where that thought had come from, but it was gone almost instantly. She would check it out after she caught the thieves.

* * *

"Sit!" said Nancy Gardener. The dog's rear end hit the floor obediently, but the front half kept walking around the room. "All of you," she said, shoving the front half into position.

By the time she got it there (it didn't want to go), the back half was up again. This was as bad as the time she had caught it sniffing its own behind and barking at it. Which had been....she had to think....only twenty-five minutes ago.

Lady Liberty came into the room, picked up the dog's haunches, and brought them close to its head. "I may have the spirit of Liberty," she said, "but not of anarchy."

Nancy thanked her, then fed the dog a treat. "Positive reinforcement," she explained. "Because I can't use negative reinforcement." The dog floated up to the treat bag to get more. Lady Liberty hit it on the nose and the dog started spinning, head over tail. Nancy started to laugh. Even Lady Liberty giggled.

Johnny Rocket came into the room. "I have a bird. Where can I keep him?"

"Oh, Lord," said Nancy. "What's its super power?"

"Speedster," said Johnny Rocket. "Not as fast as I am, but good. Maybe as fast as Ray, Jr."

"Then we do need a cage," said Lady Liberty. "If it got loose and created a sonic boom--"

"Oh, that's bad in a space station," said Nancy. "I think we still have that impenetrable aquarium that held the ambassador from Cusron III."

"Check Star Knight's room--they were close."

* * *

A week later, Daedalus said, "Another probe has landed."

"And you know this how?" Johnny asked.

"After the first two, I rigged up a sensor for them."

"Of course you did."

"So what do you think? Hamsters? Guinea pigs? Maybe a vacuum-resistant goldfish?"

"I think we should send a team to rural Kenya to find out. Captain?"

"Indeed," he said, but his gravitas was spoiled by the fact that he was holding down one end of the puppy, trying to make it sit. "For this one, Daedalus, you need to see the probe, and-- Has anyone seen Raven this week?"

Daedalus and Johnny Rocket looked at each other. "No, but that's Callie's way."

Captain Thunder ran through the possible team members. Star Knight was out of the solar system, Pseudo and Lady Liberty were dealing with that Dr. Simian thing, Dr. Metropolis would be useless in rural Kenya, he couldn't go because Nancy refused to deal with the dog any more. "Daedalus, you and Bowman. Tell him to bring the super strong rope arrow."

Daedalus was already moving. The last thing that Captain Thunder said before Daedalus left the room was, "Sit. No, sit."

* * *

"The teleporter gives me a headache, though," said the Bowman. "If you'd just look at it-- Whoa."

This part of Kenya was not as rural as they had believed. The probe lay half in and half out of a house. The front half poked out. "He'll have to build a new one," said Daedalus.

"So that's a UFO, huh? Passengers?"

"We'll see. I'll approach--be ready with the rope arrow."

The probe was empty. Bowman said, "No--look at the dents in the fabric. They're moving."

"Something invisible?" Daedalus ran his armor's scanners through the electromagnetic spectrum. "Not invisible to radio waves, which indicates a dense structure. It's a capuchin, not native to Africa."

Then they heard the angry hoots from the capsule.

"What is this stuff?" asked Bowman as he wiped it off his face. "Aw, man, even its feces are invisible."

"Force field. Not density," said Daedalus.

"Super. You're wearing armor, I just have--" The monkey flashed into visibility. The excrement did too--but when the monkey became invisible again, the excrement did not. "Aw, poop." Mindful of the elder man, he did not say a stronger word.

"Exactly," said Daedalus. "Hmmm. Capuchins are sometimes used to help quadriplegics; maybe we're looking for a home with a quadriplegic?"

"You might as well say we're looking for an organ grinder. Hey--" Bowman lifted off the ground and flew a hundred feet. He got his feet under him for the landing on a pasture. "Great!" he yelled. "Telekinetic monkeys."

The farmer and his wife--both of them hard and grizzled--walked in from the opposite field and watched. The farmer was wearing a cap with Spanish on it.

Daedalus said, "He hasn't made a move at me yet. I'll just--" In the air, before he flew into a tree, Daedalus used his flight to correct his path. "Perhaps I won't."

"He can't hit us if he can't see us." Bowman fired an arrow. The monkey and the probe were engulfed in smoke. Daedalus used his suit's scanners to find the releases on the restraints. Bowman triggered the snare on another arrow and handed a strap to Daedalus, who fashioned a crude mask to hide the monkey's eyes, then took the rest of the netting and fashioned a crude restraint for the monkey.

"You know, I joined the Freedom League to right wrongs and fight injustices, and now you've got me tying up monkeys," Bowman remarked.

"Super-powered monkeys. To the Pegasus, then the Lighthouse. I'll want your help to stow the probe."

The farmer cleared his throat. "Who'll pay for my hut?"

Daedalus said, "We will. Get an estimate and have it ready for three days from now. Someone will come by about noon."

In a quiet voice, Bowman said, "He might pad it."

Daedalus said, "I hope he does. It's a poor country."

* * *

Nancy Gardener said, "Has anyone heard from Raven? I asked her father, and he said he hadn't. I'd ask Bess but she and her husband are still on vacation."

Johnny Rocket had a collection of pudding containers this time. "Maybe he lied. Ravens do that. That's the collective noun for ravens: a fib of ravens."

"A parliament of ravens, and no, he didn't lie."

"Maybe he was lying about not lying." He looked at the six puddings. "I think I'll do chocolate vanilla butterscotch chocolate vanilla butterscotch."

"Do you have to eat so much?" She looked at him. "And sometimes, superspeed just sends you in a circle faster."

"Is that a sexual reference? Because if so, you might have hidden depths of coolness. I was worried you were a bit...you know...unhep. So square you were cubical. I'm putting this in terms I hope you'll understand."

She sighed. "It was not a sexual reference."

"Maybe tesseractical," said Johnny Rocket. "And no, I don't have to eat so much. I just like to. So far I'm not having trouble keeping the weight off." Nancy moved one hand to her waist as the puddings disappeared.

* * *

"I think our mistake was in believing that the choice of animals was equal, but now I suspect it was constrained." Half of the members of the Freedom League were gathered in a storeroom, which had been turned into a hasty menagerie. Daedalus looked at the monkey, which was sitting on Star Knight's shoulder. Daedalus looked at the monkey, which was sitting on Star Knight's shoulder. "She likes you." They had discovered the monkey was female.

"And at least she's not flinging people across the station," muttered Bowman. That was, in fact, why they had the let the monkey out of her crate.

"But she can't be my pet," said Star Knight.

"For that she'd have to be a space monkey," said Johnny.

"Chase Atom-- Never mind," said Captain Thunder. "By 'constrained,' do you mean, 'he used what was available'?"

Daedalus said, "I would not put it that way, but...yes."

"Which implies some kind of threat, working under restricted resources."

Daedalus nodded. Star Knight said, "I'm confused."

Johnny said, "It's their way. There will be an answer soon."

The monkey scampered off Star Knight's shoulder and ran out of the room.

"Stop--" started Captain Thunder and then he said a word that he had picked up in his time in the military. He put his palm to his forehead. "Johnny?"

"Sure. Pseudo, another ape might be useful if she goes invisible again."

Pseudo nodded and as a gorilla he lumbered out of the room.

* * *

They found her in the transporter room, playing with the console settings.

Johnny said something rude, just as the monkey looked at him and sent him flying.

Pseudo grunted at him. The monkey saluted--

\--just as Dr. Simian, the Maestro, and Dr. Stratos flickered into existence on the teleporter platform. Johnny started to move, only to discover his feet were not touching the ground. Before he could react to that, a sonic blast from the Maestro's sonic baton felled him.

The monkey vanished from sight. Pseudo charged Dr. Simian, hoping to overpower him. Simian swept one arm out from under Pseudo, followed by Simian embracing Pseudo with his arms and legs. "Don't try changing into a snake," Dr. Simian advised. "That never works."

Pseudo grew to the size of an elephant, but Dr. Simian still held on, then struck Pseudo once at the base of the skull. The Grue collapsed and lay still. "Excellent. I've been developing a form of martial arts for animals, but with the undifferentiated form of the Grue, I didn't know if the nerve jabs would work. Interesting to note that as an elephant, he had an elephant's weaknesses." He shook his head. "Indian elephant. African would have been better." He hooted softly and a series of dents ran up his arm. The monkey appeared on his shoulder.

"I could have done it with my mighty winds," said Dr. Stratos.

"Yes, of course," said Dr. Simian. "We're all quite afraid of your mighty winds, Stratos."

"No bickering until after the job is done," said the Maestro. "Dr. Simian?"

The great ape flexed his fingers and began hacking into the computer system.

* * *

Captain Thunder said, "They're taking a long time."

"I'll bet the monkey is leading them on a long chase," said Nancy.

"Still," said Star Knight. "It's probably nothing, but I'll go to suit systems." She activated her suit's life support. Now she was breathing her suit's air, not the Lighthouse's air, listening and seeing through the suit's sensors instead of being open to them.

"That is protocol," agreed Daedalus. "But--"

"Nancy!" She had fallen to the floor. Captain Thunder crossed the space between them.

Daedalus bent down. "Tachycardia, irregular breathing--the medibed has a scanner--" In seconds, he was unconscious and so was Captain Thunder.

 _A hull breach or an attack,_ thought Star Knight. She got Daedalus' helmet on him and felt the safety seals engage. Captain Thunder and Nancy got emergency oxygen. She readied herself if it were an attack.

The doors slid open—

—and a ferocious blast of air swept in, knocking her off her feet. She slammed against the bulkhead and reflexively switched to flight mode. Her suit began analyzing the forces against her: powerful winds, subsonics, and three individuals--Dr. Stratos, Dr. Simian, and the Maestro.

Dr. Simian pinned her in his massive arms. The Maestro looked at her armor for a long time and then said, "Ah. That subscription to HeroWorx paid off. Here and here are the emergency removal tabs." He undid the helmet, and then pressed the wand against her head. "Goodnight, my dear." Once she was unconscious, he said, "Thank goodness she's human. I don't know if my subsonics would work on a random alien species."

"I would be able to deal with her," Dr. Stratos proclaimed. Dr. Simian rolled his eyes as he let Star Knight to the floor.

Maestro said, "We're not done yet."

* * *

Once the villains had left the room, Pseudo opened his eyes. He was outnumbered but not badly so. All he had to do was free the others, and the internecine bickering in the Crime League should help him accomplish that.

He shifted forms to become a small capuchin monkey. Better to cover ground unobtrusively, and he could do that if he looked like the loose monkey.

* * *

Nancy Gardener awoke just as the Maestro was finishing the last of her knots. She realized she knew the knot from her abortive attempt to learn the violin several decades ago, just before Ray Junior was born. She opened her mouth to call for Ray, and if he didn't show up, to yell at the villains, when Maestro grabbed her jaw. His hands smelled of vanilla.

"Don't sing," he murmured. "Don't sing, and I don't have to gag you. Leaving your mouth free is a politeness, not a right."

She might have to call one of the League later. She closed her mouth and nodded mutely.

He smiled. "Just think of it as a full rest."

The members of the League were here and already awake, but in the power-sapping restraints they used for prisoners. Who was still absent? Lady Liberty, Bowman, Raven, Siren, and Dr. Metropolis. Siren and Metropolis rarely came to the lighthouse, Lady Liberty was on vacation, Raven was out of touch. So they could expect no help there. Maybe Bowman would have a reason--

The talkscreen buzzed. "Pseudo's gone," said Dr. Stratos.

Dr. Simian grunted and said to Maestro, "He was faking. I knew the coincidence in weak spots was too good to be true."

Dr. Stratos said, "I will search for him."

"You do that," said Dr. Simian. He made sure to switch off the talkscreen before saying, "Buffoon."

"He'll be captured," said Maestro.

"Maybe," said Dr. Simian. "In the meantime, we seal off this room so Pseudo doesn't get in as a gnat or something."

"I don't believe Pseudo can manage smaller than a mouse."

"We seal it anyway. There are air ducts, but it is a space station, so we should be able to do individual rooms— Ah. Here." He flipped some switches. "Always a duel between ease of use and security through obfuscation."

* * *

 _In their position,_ thought Pseudo, _I'd seal off the room, air and all. So no entrance from outside for this shapechanger. But to humans, one gorilla looks like another, though they're as distinctive as humans are._ He shimmered until he looked like Dr. Simian, complete with the bodysuit that the gorilla wore.

* * *

"Ah," said Dr. Simian. "He's changed to look like me. I'll tell Stratos over the talkscreen."

"I'll tell him," said Maestro. "You keep working. The quicker we're done, the better."

"If he's captured," mused Dr. Simian, "would we really be that much worse off?"

"You don't abandon the kettle drums because they're only in the overture. All instruments have a part to play. For that matter, we'll be rescuing your superpowered pets."

Dr. Simian paused to stroke the monkey's head. "Pity I haven't figured out how to make them keep the powers. A super monkey could be quite useful."

* * *

Pseudo heard the Maestro speak to Dr. Stratos on the intercom: every time Pseudo changed form, Maestro identified it. Did hearing the Maestro mean that Stratos was close?

The corridor filled with fog. Yes, Stratos was close. Pseudo couldn't see, so he switched to a bat. Echolocation told him there was something man-shaped two dozen feet in front of him. Winds buffeted him against a bulkhead—he switched to lizard form, and held tight. Rain fell: panels sparked as they shorted and went dead. The Maestro's voice—the intercom—went silent.

He scampered across the floor, his sticky feet gripping the tiles, when a lucky burst of wind carried him into the air, into the opposite wall, into unconsciousness.

* * *

Nancy Gardener saw them bring in Pseudo. She watched them fasten him in power-nullifying restraints. She knew now there was no one coming to rescue them. Captain Thunder—Ray—looked at her and smiled. She smiled back too, weakly. They had always gotten out of jams like this before. Maybe this was the one they wouldn't.

Then she had an idea. She was the least-tied of them all, perhaps because the villains regarded her as the least threat.

She stood suddenly, and the chair strapped to her behind knocked open the birdcage with the canary. Free, the bird zoomed around the room. The monkey vanished in fear, but she could still be tracked because things toppled over as she moved past them. The three villains moved together, backs to each other for protection.

"Simian! They're yours! Do something!" said Dr. Stratos.

Dr. Simian hooted, but it didn't seem to calm the animals.

Captain Thunder nodded, looked past Nancy and said, "Come, boy! Come on!"

A long string of tan and brown extended across to him, past Dr. Simian's bulky body. Nancy understood. She called, "Come, boy! Come here!"

No sooner had the puppy arrived there than Star Knight called, and then Daedalus. Soon all three villains were wrapped in dog. Without their interference, Nancy could wriggle over and free Daedalus, the closest to her, and he unleashed the rest.

There was no fight; Ray knocked Dr. Stratos unconscious and the other two gave in quietly.

* * *

"Raven was where?"

"In the mind control of a cat," said Dr. Metropolis. "Fortunately I found her after only a few days had passed, so she wasn't too starved."

"Yes, but it didn't co-operate like the rest. It just had humans bring it food." He looked at them. "You managed as it was?"

"Like the dollar bill says," said Johnny.

"I'm going to regret this. What does it say?" asked Nancy.

"In dog we trussed."

**Author's Note:**

> This one is from 2010.


End file.
